Oven-door mounting



1,634,358 s. H. HoBsoN ovEN Doon MOUNTING quy 5, 1927.

Filed Sept. 5, 1925 2 Shoots-Sheet 1 1,634,358 July 5 1927' vs. H. HoBsoN ovEN DooR MOUNTING Filed sept. 5, 1925 Sheets-sheet 2 ffy. f

33 f7 fg .4f

Patented July 5, 1927.

UNITED STATES 1,634,358 PATENT OFFICE.

STANLEY H. HOBSON, 02E' ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO GEO. D. ROPER CORPORA- TION, OF ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

OVEN-DOOR MOUNTING.

Application led September 5, 1925. Serial No. 54,649.

This invention relates to an oven door mounting for gas stoves and ranges or stoves generally. l

The principal object of the invention is to provide a mounting for an oven door whereby the same is held closed under coinparatively heavy pressure and when moved to opened position is held open under coinparatively light pressure, there beingan 1ntermediate position where the door is .b alanced and may be moved with equal facility in either direction.

As a result of the foregoing provision, I am enabled to dispense with the use of a spring clip or other expedient lfor holding` the door closed due to there being a heavy closing pressure exerted, as above stated. At the same time, the light opening pressure referred to is augmented in the ordinary use of the stove when something` is .placed on the oven door preparatory to sliding it into the oven, or when something is moved out of the oven onto the door. In either case, this additional weight dispenses with the necessity for a heavy constraint for keeping the door opened.

The invention is fully disclosed in the course of the following description in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings, wherein- Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the oven end of a gas stove having the doors provided with my improved mounting;

Fig. 2 is a vertical, sectional detail on an enlarged scale illustrating the counter-balancing means for the oven door. This view is taken on the line 2--2 of Figs. 1 and 3;

Fig. 3 is a rear View ot the counterbalancing means shown in Fig. 2 and is taken looking on tlieline 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a vertical, section detail on'an enlarged scale showing the counter-balancing means for the broileroven door. This view is taken on the line 4 4 of Figs. 1 and 5;

Fig. 5 is a rear view of the mounting illustrated in Fig. 4 and is taken on the line 5-5 thereof;

Figs. 6 and 7 are views similar to Fig. 4 but showing the doorlirst in its intermediate balanced position, and secondly in its fully opened position.

Throughout the views, the same reference numerals are applied to corresponding parts and the sectional details are taken looking in the direction of the arrows.

The stove 6, illustrated, will be recognized as a gas stove of the conventional type having an oven compartment 7 and a broiler compartment 8 on the right hand side with a. cooking top 9 provided with the usual burners on the left hand side. The oven front 10 provides a marginal frame for the oven compartments. The oven door 11 has a frame 12 mounted, as will be hereinafter described, iii the compartment 7. The broiler oven door 13 has a frame 14 mounted in a similar manner, as hereinafter described, in the broiler compartment 8. The mountings for both doors are generally the same, at least so far as their operation is In both cases, the doors are of concerned. the drop type and are normally held closed under a comparatively heavy pressure. The pressure is sufficient to make it unnecessary to provide the usual form of spring clip for securing the door. The dispensing with this arrangement, in addition to the providing of a totally concealed mounting, makes for neatness and trininess in the appearance of the ovens, as will be noted on observation of Fig. 1. Aside from this advantage, there is the further advantage that the banging and jarring of the doors in closing is avoided. A door can be opened without jerking and can be restrained to close very gently without banging and jarring the oven and possibly ruining a cake or other preparation in it. The doors are both capable of holding an intermediate balanced position partly opened, from which position they can be moved with equal facility either to closed or opened position. lVhen the doors are moved to opened position they are held opened under comparatively light pressure. Less pressure is necessary for holding them opened than closed since, in the normal use of the stove, pans are slid out of the ovens onto the doors and thus afford additional weight tending to keep the doors opened, or oftentimes the oven door is used as a temporary shelf for placing articles preparatory to putting them in the ovenf While the details of construction provided for the accomplishment of the above-described objects are relatively unimportant,

as such operations may be secured with various forms of oven door mountings, I have illustrated two similar types of mountings for the two oven doors which are capable of operation in the above-described manner.

16 receive heads 17 formed preferably intemetal frames 12 and 14v gral with the cast of the oven doors. The heads 17 are recessed on their under side, as shown at 18, to ride smoothly on the roll bearings 15 in the opening and `closing of the doors. The opposite side of the heads-17 is provided with curved l"projections 19 which engage the top ends of the slots 16 When the door is swung out in order to retain the same in the manner indicated in Fig. 7.. One of the heads 17 has a pin 21 extending from the side thereof over which the hooked end 22 of a coiled tension spring 23 is engaged. The opposite end 24 of the spring 23 is similarly hooked toengage over` a screw or other suitable projection 25 provided on the inside of the oven front 10. The connection of the spring 23 with the head 17 at the pin21 is so related to the bearing 15 anditstension is of the proper value so as to secure the operating characteristics described in the previous paragraph. While this operation is more fully stated in the following paragraph, it will suiiice at this time to state that the door 11 in its fully closed position is supported practically entirely by the bearing 15 and, therefore, has a zero turning moment with respect to the bearing 15. The spring 23 on the other hand, has a certain initial tension and its connection with the door is so related to the bearing 15 that it exerts a clock-wise turning moment, as viewed in Fig. 2, which is the maximum efective turning moment available in this direction in anyy position of the door. This is by virtue of the fact that there is then no counter-turning moment exerted by the door itself. 'The latter, when swung open, exerts a counter- .turning moment as its mass center moves away from the bearing 15. In other words the door tends to vswing open under its own weight when partly opened, and would do so except for the counter-balancing effect ex- .erted by the spring 23. The counter-balancing effect is suiicient to move the door to closed position until the door reaches an intermediate balanced position where it stands at an angle of approximately 45 to the horizontal. Beyond this degree of opening, the turning moment for which the weight of the door is responsible, overbalances the effect of the spring 23 and there builds up a tendency for the door to move to fully opened position. The proportionment of the tension of the spring `to the weight of the door, and the relationship as respects im testate vided with a forked end 34'straddling the I pin'21 on the head 17. The lunger is reciproable in a guide provide by an opening in an angle plate 28 bolted, as indicated at 29, or secured in any other suitable manner to the inner side of the oven front 10. The spring 32 in this case is under an initial compression whichfn the fully closed position of the door 13, is operative to its full ei'ect to keep the 4door closed under coni-l paratively heavy pressure. Similarly as the door 11 causes an elongation and a consequent increase in tension of the spring 23 in opening, the door 13 increases the loading of the spring 32 by further compression of the Asame in moving to fully opened position.

The relationship of the connection of the spring 32 with the door 13, with respect to `the bearing 15, is such that substantially the same operating characteristicsas were described for the door 11 are secured for the door 13. Although the loading of the spring increases as the door moves from closed position toward open position, this loading is ofset by a turning moment resulting from a movement of the mass `center of.

the door away from the bearing 15 on 'the opposite side of the bearing from the spring 32 The door is of sufficient weight to coinpletely counter-balance the effect of the` spi-ing 32 in the inid position shown in Fig. 6. In other words, the turning moments clock-Wise and counter-.clock-wise produced lby the weight of the door 13 on one hand,

and the compression of the spring 32 on the other hand, are balanced and the door stands in neutral or stable equilibrium. If moved toward closed position, the spring is operative to constrain the door to move to fully closed Vposition and, in extreme closed position, exerts sufficient constraint to hold the door closed so firmly that the usual form of door clip is found to be unnecessary. If the door is moved from the mid position toward fully opened position, the increased coinpression of the spring is more than offset by the weightof the door and the door 10 tends of itself to move to fully opened position. However, the constraint in' this case is substantially less than in the case where the door is moved toward closed position from the mid position. As stated above, this arnaeaaee rangement is provided for the reason that `the placing of articles on the door when in opened position serves as additional weight to hold the door open. Obviously, the operation of the door is ideal. lt is possible to place the same in a mid position, at which time there is the possibility of moving it with equal facility in either direction, the door tending of itself to go closed or proceed to fully opened position. With this arrangement, it is unnecessary to j ar the oven and bang the door which was an unavoidable incident1 to the operation of previous conventional types, especially where spring door clips were provided, in which case the resistance of the spring had to be overcome by pressure on the door and this pressure caused the door to bang shut and Jar the oven as the clip rode over the keeper. The closing of the door may be'eased up by the holding of the handle to close gently and quietly and without any effort on the part of the operator. The friction of the door` on its bearings comes into play when the door is at the balanced intermediate position to enable placing the door in any position within a certain range where it will stand open without having to hold it, even though'the door is not in the exact position where the turning moments, clockwise and counter-clockwise, are exactly counter-balanced.

I claim:

ln a stove, a drop door Jfor an oven compartment having means for dierently counter-balancing the door in its dierent positions so that it is held closed under comparatively heavy pressure, is held open under comparatively light pressure, and is substantially balanced in an intermediate position, said counter-balancing means comprising a lever arm swinging with the door through a predetermined angularity, a counter-balancing spring to be distorted more and more as the arm swings in the opening of the door, and a plunger for transmitting the load thereof to said arm, said arm having'a pivot point to provide a bearing for said plunger, the plunger having an oiiset end portion bearing on said pivot and having the other end portion arranged to place the spring under gradually increasing distortion in the movement of the door from closed to open position, the said pivotl point being arranged to move in a predetermined arc in the swinging oil the arm with the door to and from the closed position thereof, and moving the offset end portion of said 'plunger to vary the leverage of the spring offsetting the leverage of the door in such a Way that the operations first above recited are secured substantially as andfor the pur poses described.

STANLEY H. HOBSON. 

